A question for AE Balkan members only

An interesting read... A lot of fantasy, some funny "nationalist history" and even more utopic view of future. So for me it's just a funny read, nothing serious...
And concerning the subject of "East-European-Middle-Eastern Union" - not such a bad thing as an utopia, but otherwise it's completely impossible...

Thanks for your answers.

The article is pure phantesy. The author confuse deliberately a Napoleon`s replica about the `Tatar in any Russian` with Churchill who never sayed that any Russian is a Turk.    

Is a political manipulation I think.

I dont believe Greece is devastated by Euro and estival turism.

In Balkans the anti-Ottoman feelings were allways so strong that nobody could think that this empire was good for them or would be good now.

Originally posted by Leonardo The question is only for AE Balkan people (Greeks, Albanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Bosnians, ...). Other people, please, abstain to comment (especially Turks  )

That's ridiculous! Turks are a Balkan peopel. Almost ever second non-kurdish citizen of Turkey has his roots in the Balkans. Even now there are more Turks in the Balkans than Greeks, Serbs or Bulgarians seperately. So your attempt to exclude Turks from the list of Balkan people is a miserable failure.  To your utter disappointment the Balkans have been and are still swarming with Turks.

Regarding the article... I haven't read it completely, but the idea of reviving the Ottoman Empire  or the Byzantine Empire is absurd. The Ottoman empire failed because it was destined to fail - it was stagnating economically and with the divergent interests and the rising nationalism of its constitutent peoples it was bound to break apart.

I am more open minded towards developing a Balkan Union which would allow Balkan countries to stand against Western Imperialism.

Now. lets not mix things. Everybody, from moldova to cyprus belongs politically to what is called "The Balkans" or "South Eastern Europe". It doesnt matter if people want it or not, the turkish are balkanic, politically, geographically and culturally. And of course, they are also asiatic, in the same time.It is like the case of russia, they certainly are european, but they are also asiatic, geographically and politically.

Originally posted by NikeBG Of course, Turks could also speak here, but in their oppinions on this matter it should be considered that they would naturally have more reasons to want to revive the Ottoman Empire than the rest of the Balkan people. I don't say all Turks would want it, but they would want it more than the other Balkanians.

I disagree. There are always fringe groups, but they are insignificant, and the majority of Turks would not support the the revival of the Ottoman Empire.

There was in fact a group among Turks (and Kurds) in Germany, which wanted to revive the Ottoman Empire (I think they called it Halifat), but they were banned in Turkey. The leader was arrested not too long ago and deported to Turkey, where he is imprisoned because he had plans to ram a plane into Ataturk's mausuleum. Imperialists are very bitter at Ataturk because he abolished the halifat.

Sure, there still could be a few imperialists in Turkey, but they are a minority, and more importantly they are at odds with the secular establishment which makes them even weaker.

Turkish nationalism which is centered around the Turkishness and Turkish language and Ottoman Imperialism which was centered around Islam are two incompatible concepts. Even the most extreme Turkish nationalist would not support a revival of the Ottoman Empire because this would weaken the Turkish character of the state she leaves in.




Edited by bg_turk - 27-Jul-2006 at 15:21